Progressive Muscle Relaxation
“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.” –Chinese Proverb
Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
Are you feeling constantly pressured and finding it hard to relax? Do you often feel overwhelmed, easily annoyed, or unable to unwind at night? Are you experiencing tension in your jaw, neck, or back, along with frequent headaches?
Progressive Muscle Relaxtion (PMR) might just what you need. With chronic stress affecting more people today and leading to various health issues, PMR offers a simple yet effective body-centered relaxation technique developed by Dr. Edmund Jacobson in the 1930s. This method actively guides you through tensing and relaxing individual muscle groups, enhancing body awareness and promoting deep relaxation.
Research shows that PMR can significantly reduce stress, improve sleep quality, and help manage chronic health conditions. It has been found to lower stress levels, enhance sleep by promoting deeper relaxation, relieve chronic pain, reduce headache frequency and severity, manage high blood pressure, and alleviate digestive issues like irritable bowel syndrome.. Additionally, PMR has been shown to ease mental health symptoms such as anxiety and depression, and it has proven beneficial for COVID-19 patients in reducing stress and improving sleep quality during recovery.​​​
What is Progressive Muscle Relaxation?
The technique of PMR was developed in the 1930s by American psychologist Edmund Jacobson.
Jacobson's PMR technique is one of the most effective and easy-to-learn relaxation methods. It is often used and recommended prophylactically for stress relief, physical and psychological stress, nervousness, inner tension, anxiety, performance difficulties, personal problems and conflicts.
The principle is based on learning to perceive the physical sensations during tension and relaxation and consciously recognising the differences.
Many people do not notice the tension at all, which is why the perception of relaxation and relaxation is particularly important. After just a short period of practice, you develop a kind of "muscular sense" that draws your attention to the slightest sign of tension, so that there is no permanent stress or persistent tension. You will gradually learn to tense, relax and perceive all important muscle groups in your body.
The easy-to-learn exercises can be carried out independently in everyday life anywhere and at any time while sitting, standing or lying down. The body comes to rest through muscle relaxation and can use its own self-regulation abilities. The PMR course teaches you to react to stress with relaxation and to easily integrate the exercises into your everyday life.
If we are relaxed, we will become more efficient and more resilient in everyday life. PMR training also has a harmonising effect on digestion, heartbeat, breathing and uncomfortable tension. The intensity of disturbing feelings, such as fears or anger, will decrease, so we can calm down and enjoy our life more.
You will also learn how to break unpleasant thought cycles and sleep again with regenerating dream trips, relaxation exercises for daily use, body scans or breathing exercises.
You will also learn how to break unpleasant thought cycles and sleep again, regenerate dream trips, relaxation exercises for daily use, body scans or breathing exercises.
Basic principles of relaxation
The muscles show an increased willingness to reduce the tone after a systematically increased tension in the muscle movement. This effect is used in the PMR. As a result of the reduction in muscle tone, the psychogenic overlay of the muscles caused by stress and fear is occasionally removed.
‣ Relaxation is caused by previous tension.
‣ The relaxation phase is significantly longer than the tension phase. (3: 1)
‣ The relaxation process is supported by focusing on the change between tension and relaxation.
‣ After relaxing the muscles, pay attention to the pleasant feeling of relaxation (e.g. how are you?)
How does your arm feel now and in the past? By concentrating on this feeling, the experience of the reaction can be intensified.
‣ Make sure you understand how you feel about relaxation and tension
The entire workout is structured as follows: keep a separate muscle group under control and then move on to the next one. As the training progresses, the tension phase decreases and the relaxation phase is automatically caused by suggestion.
Preparation for relaxation
Before you start PMR, consider the following:
If you have any injuries or a history of physical problems that can cause muscle, consult your doctor before you start!
If possible, relax in a quiet environment (e.g. turning off the TV and radio)
• Make yourself comfortable. Use e.g. Chair with headrest.
Wear comfortable clothes and take off your shoes.
• It is not recommended to use intoxicants such as alcohol after large, heavy meals or after eating.
How to practice PMR
With the PMR method, the psyche is positively controlled by the tension and relaxation of your muscles. You do this by tensing a series of muscle groups for about 5 -10 seconds and then relaxing for about 10-30 seconds.
This exercise is done sequentially with all muscle groups above the body. Go from hands and arms to facial muscles, neck and shoulder muscles, stomach to legs and feet. Then you consciously feel the feeling of tension and relaxation. The exercise takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes to begin with the whole body.
Due to the Progressive Muscle Relaxation you feel calm and relaxed in body and mind. This makes it resistant to tension and overload. In addition, your body awareness improves. You can feel better where you are in the body and counteract this in good time with muscle relaxation.
Remember that learning a relaxation technique is a skill that, like all other skills, improves through practice. Be patient and don't let your efforts to practise relaxation techniques become another stressor.